Search results: Day of Hungarian Poetry

Celebrating the Day of Hungarian Poetry

The Day of Hungarian Poetry, celebrated annually on 11 April since 1964, honours the nation’s rich literary heritage and the enduring contributions of its poets, both past and present. From public transport recitations to literary gatherings, this vibrant celebration unites Hungarians in a shared appreciation for the power of language and the timeless themes of human experience captured in poetry.

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Hungarian Poetry Day

Hungarians celebrate the National Poetry Day on 11 April; the birthday of the notable poet, Attila József.

Stories We Live By: In the Footsteps of Hungarian Master Narratives

‘In Hungary, unique master narratives have emerged over the centuries that live with us to this day. We can run into them everywhere in the most diverse segments of life: in culture, in education, even in politics. What exactly does the term master narrative mean and why is it so crucial to our lives and identities? What are the defining Hungarian master narratives?’

A Slovak family in 1907 in Sátoraljaújhely, Hungary

István Käfer, the Proponent of Hungarian–Slovak Spiritual Reconciliation through the Legacy of St Stephen

‘For István Käfer, one of the elements that has historically united both Slovakia and Hungary is, surprisingly, the language. Bálint Balassi, for instance, a crucial figure in Hungarian renaissance poetry, wrote his works in Hungarian, but he knew Slovak very well, which greatly influenced his thinking and language use. Cardinal Péter Pázmány also had a significant influence on the development of the Slovak language, by not only allowing, but encouraging its use in Catholic prayers.’

Scenes from the life of Saint Catherine, painted by Masolino. Rome, San Clemente

Hungarian Pilgrims at St Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai

‘The importance of the Orthodox rite of St Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of the 2,300-metre Mount Sinai (Jebel Musa, also known as Horeb) in the Sinai Peninsula grew only after the loss of Jerusalem in 1187 and the fall of the Latin states in the Holy Land in 1291…It is the oldest monastery in the world to have survived in this way, where, among other things, the oldest 4th-century Greek-language manuscript of the Bible, the Codex Siniaticus, has also been preserved.’

Celebrating Reformation Day — The Calvinian Traits on the Face of the Hungarian Nation

Protestants played an irreplaceable role in the formation of Hungarian literary language, as well as in the renewal of the language. It is no coincidence that Ferenc Kölcsey, who wrote the Hungarian National Anthem in 1823, was a student at the Reformed College in Debrecen for many years, just as it is no accident that it was in the same Debrecen, known as the Calvinist Rome, that the Hungarian National Assembly—headed by Lajos Kossuth, who hailed from a Lutheran small noble family—proclaimed the dethronement of the House of Habsburg on 14 April 1849.